Challenges and strategies in social media(continuation)

Before I dig into the challenges that come in Facebook marketing, I think it’s worth mentioning first the relevance and effectiveness of blogs in their current form. So if you ask me if it’s still practical to blog in order to generate leads, my answer would be more on the side of “not anymore”. But I’m not saying that it has completely lost its relevance. It’s just that it’s hard to trust a blog these days to say something about a product or service. Secondly, with the overwhelming popularity of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+, people are now more inclined to see or want to “get to know” their products better in ways that their friends see them in the social media platform that they commonly share. 

On hindsight, blogging used to play a good part in social media marketing. But that trend is fast fading. Companies are now more focused on investing on Facebook than blogging for obvious reasons. Facebook is less complicated to manage, many times more effective, less expensive over the long haul.

Another good reason is that customers are getting more selective with the kind of information they consume. Most blogs nowadays have a reputation for being too self-serving, not to mention that they are slyly written to improve rankings with search engines. Many of them have been purposely created as a brag sheet than to provide readers with useful content. You will also notice that they employ bootlickers to comment on their blogs and say “amen” to their inanities just to push the junk that they are selling. They are very common in rich-quick schemes, supplements, self-help ebooks, and even underwear for crying out loud.  

What makes blogs less credible these days is that many companies employ the services of freelance bloggers just to gain positive reviews or mentions. Because of this unrestrained and undesirable practice, it’s hard to distinguish anymore a well meaning blogger and a paid one. It also breaks my heart that a good majority (of the bloggers) that I know are there for the money or to obtain favors. But I’m hopeful that our blog organizations may be able to level up the blogging community to one that is driven by free and honest expression of an event, product or service.  That way, we help enable and empower consumers to make more informed choices on what’s being offered to them and to actively help thresh the bad products that litter on the internet.

And since Facebook is way, way better than blogs, it does not come without its difficulty. Some four years back, it used to be so easy to generate followers or likers to your Facebook page since only a few were interested to create a page much less knowledgeable to effectively launch a campaign through it. Now with the temptation to becoming a social media influencer or a Facebook marketer, everybody seems to be joining the frenzy of building their own page. And like everyone else, they too are seeking likes from their friends, and their friends’ friends.

To generate likes on Facebook does not only take your time, it also very frustrating. As I have said, people are very selective when it comes to the kind of information that they see on their feeds. With users getting more empowered on Facebook to unlike your page or to hide your posts on their feeds, Facebook marketers are usually forced to advertise on Facebook just so they may be able to keep in touch with their target markets which, by the way, is more expensive than Google advertising.

To launch and maintain a Facebook campaign demands creativity and strategy. You must be able to master its tools including third party tools to automate and manage your postings. Posts have to be rationalized in terms of how useful they are to your followers; by the amount of buzz it creates; and in terms of generating additional followers to your page. Remember, your followers can be your potential customers at any given time. Thus, your posts must also be able to move your products without trying to be so pushy or hardsell.

And since most companies do not have the time or the expertise to launch a Facebook campaign, it is crucial to select an expert with proven track record behind him or her. So if you’re a company that is in need of a Facebook expert, hire someone who can show you the pages he/she manages. There will be those who claim to be good on Facebook but the pages they create or manage speak otherwise. 

(To be continued)

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